(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

In case you haven't seen the link yet, the South Carolina State House passed a bill cracking down on gamecock fighting and tabled a bill protecting victims of domestic violence. As you can read in the article, Rep. John Graham Altman then proceeded to use the occasion to behave like a complete and total asstard.

But the good things is, everybody stepped to call him on it.

Comments

[delwyncole.livejournal.com]

I just can't believe that he spoke like that to a reporter. It was a phenomenally stupid thing to do. You never ever piss off the press. That said, I'm constantly amazed at the justifications people have for not treating Domestic violence like a serious crime. Regardless of what you believe the woman should have done in that situation, it is reprehensible not to severely punish the guy who continues to beat her (typically in an escalating pattern of violence). I really don't understand why it is ever a misdemeanor, but I do understand that for just about anything short of murder we have an escalating sentencing structure. I can live with that, but this one doesn't escalate, while you can be sure that the abuse is.

As for his assertion that there should never be a second offense. From a certain point of view I get that. I can't imagine ever sticking around after somebody who claimed to love me, hit me. I wouldn't do it. I also understand that I am pretty lucky. I've got good self-esteem, and truly believe I deserve better than that. I've yet to meet the person I was afraid of, and I've known some pretty violent people in my lifetime. And most of all, I grew up in an environment where hitting someone was never the solution to a problem. Every incident of my life tells me that hitting people is never okay. Many women in abusive relationships just don't have that kind of security. Often their self-esteem has been systematically destroyed before the physical abuse ever began, so that they are at a point in their life when not only do they truly believe this guy is the best they can get, but they believe they have to have a man because they aren't good enough to survive in the big bad world on their own. Many are afraid, not only for their own lives, but for the lives of their children or friends. Abusive men threaten, and many of them have no qualms about threatening the friend whose house you're staying at or your children. There's the added threat of just taking the kids, and it seems credible to many women, particularly women who have been shown just how unimportant domestic violence is to the courts. They may not have any job skills, no way to support children, and the guy will be telling them how they're an unfit mother and he'll prove it to the courts. And many people didn't grow up with the knowledge that hitting and more important being hit is never okay. Many women in abusive relationships had mothers who were in abusive relationships. They weren't taught that this was a bad thing they should get out of at all costs. They were taught this is the proper and appropriate way for men to treat their husbands. I can't emotionally understand women who stay, my brain isn't wired that way. I pray that I never can. But rationally, I get it.